>> this tragedy probably wouldn't have occurred. >> how it could have been prevented and could still happen again. battery-powered brain. it can change people's minds. >> it felt fantastic. i didn't care what was doing it. >> is it a cure for depression? revealing investigation. stories with impact. this is cnn presents with tonight's host drew griffin. >> but they found out their school had a problem and not the teachers or the test scores or even the other kids. the problem is the building. it's toxic. that's right. it wasn't safe for the children. d ps-5 is isn't alone. as part of dr. sanjay gupta ongoing reporting on toxic towns he found all over the country children are going to school that can make them skick and th first stop is ps-51. >> she is helping her son get ready for the first day of school. brand op seems excited but marisol seems nerves. this is more than just a case of first day jitters. >> i cannot wait to get to school. >> in august, just weeks before school started, marisol saw this emergency meeting notice taped to brandon's school. ps-51 in the bronx. that night, marisol joined an auditorium packed with worried parents. chancellor dennis wallcot opened the meeting with a dramatic statement. >> so, first, i want to start out by apologizing to all of you. >> and he followed the apology with disturbing news. >> we decided to do environmental reviews. your school came with a result that we were not satisfied with with an elevated level of tce. >> tce or trichlorethelyne is a carcinogen and prolonged exposure can cause cancer and even death. tests at ps-51 showed tce levels at over hundred times worse than what's considered safe. >> based on the final confirmation, we thought we needed to shut the building down. >> parents are upset. >> you are using euphemisms. you're trying to be nice. that was a building that was storing chemicals that were cancer-causing agents. and because of the vicinity and the children that are involved, you didn't care. >> and you guys, board of ed, first allowed it to be used as a school for our children. and i think it's so inappropriate. >> reporter: but the parents were even more upset by the fact that the board of education discovered the contamination in january 2011. yet, parents weren't told. and their children were kept in class through the end of the year. >> i voice my displeasure with our folks and myself as far as the timeliness of that notification. and from this point on, whenever we get a positive notification around some type of environmental issue, the parent, the community, the staff, and the school community will be notified immediately. >> i met marisol outside that contaminated school. so the staff, the kids, all of the people who are essentially in this building, a good chunk of their days, knew nothing about this? >> no. the chancellor said he was sorry. >> reporter: how worried are you? >> very worried. this is the school right here. >> reporter: marisol says even brandon, who's normally upbeat, is worried. do you like this new building? >> um-hmm. >> reporter: do you know why you're in the new building? >> because they closed down because of tce, a chemical. >> reporter: you know all that? what do you know about tce? >> it's a cancer-causing chemical. >> reporter: we wanted to ask chancellor wallcot why they didn't tell parents about the toxic chemical in the school until months after they knew about it. but after repeated requests for an interview, his office declined to speak with cnn. >> for the sheer callousness and recklessness of the behavior towards kids, this is as bad as i've ever seen. >> reporter: lawyer shawn collins has won a number of tce contamination suits for mmunities aroundhe country. >> the people who ran this school knew for at least six months that there were dangerous levels, in some cases, off-the-charts levels of chemical in the air that these kids were breathing and yet they let those kids go there day in, day out every day for the rest of a semester. unconscionable. >> reporter: colin says the building should never have been a school. >> it's an old industrial site. not a place to have kids going to school. >> reporter: new york city records show ps-51 did house a car garage and a lamp factory. tce, once used to degrease metal could have been leftover waste. many schools around the country are built on old industrial sites, according to lenny siegel who digs up the past of toxic schools. >> we don't consider contamination before we decide where to put the school. and particularly in new york city where they have so many leased schools on leased properties, most of which are former industrial sites, or at least many of which, i don't know the exact number, they had a policy of not looking for problems. >> reporter: siegel believes that ground and water testing ought to be mandatory. hi also says ps-51 was probably always problematic. just weeks before brandon and the other ps-51 kids started at their new school, parents were hit with more unsettling news. tests revealed slightly elevated levels of a common, but a toxic, pce. >> and what is going to happen to our children? >> reporter: parents showed up at another meeting to confront the chancellor. >> at first i have to say dennis wallcot, how dare you? >> how dare you! >> reporter: the chancellor dismissed the results as insignificant. >> there was an open container. the levels came back down. >> reporter: but parents like marisol no longer trust the school system. what are you going to do? what's the plan? >> i'm just going to watch him consistently. i mean, any little thing that he gets is going to be an alarm for me. he's 8 years old and it's scary toee i haveo see what is going to happen with him. i pray that nothing is going to come of this. but you just don't know. >> reporter: when we come back. >> about a third of our schools have some kind of problem that causes respiratory problems in children. >> it is horrific. with the capital one cash rewards card you get a 50% annual bonus. and everyone likes 50% more cash -- well, except her. no! but, i'm about to change that. ♪ every little baby wants 50% more cash... ♪ phhht! fine, you try. 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[ male announcer ] the capital one cash rewards card. the card for people who want 50% more cash. ♪ what's in your wallet? ♪ what's in your...your... ♪ ♪ what's in your wallet? you want to save money on car insurance? no problem. you want to save money on rv insurance? no problem. you want to save money on motorcycle insurance? no problem. you want to find a place to park all these things? fuggedaboud it. this is new york. hey little guy, wake up! aw, come off it mate! geico. saving people money on more than just car insurance. we have seen a school tamed contaminated by a toxic chemical in new york where many schools sit on old industrial sites. but the problem goes far beyond toxic chemicals. our kids spend half their waking day in school. but there are no air quality standards for classrooms in the united states. in fact, one school in three has air quality so bad, by e.p.a. standards, it can make children sick. some fed-up parents didn't wait for summer vacation. they said their kids are staying home until thing get better. here, again, dr. sanjay gupta. ♪ >> reporter: in picturesque winston, connecticut, a a 250-year-old new england town. a typical school day at hinsdale, elementary. but one fourth grader matthew aslin won't be there this morning. or any morning. >> now, if you look at him, what do you think? do you think he's going to be friendly? >> reporter: matthew's mother is home schooling her son this year. >> when he was out of school, he was well. and when he was in school, he became ill. last year was, by far, his worst year. he missed more than 50 days of school. >> reporter: mold at hinsdale, she says, was making her son sick. >> this bag represents most of the medications that matthew was on last year. this is a mist. he was given erythromicin. this is right before he went into the hospital for pan sinusitis. when he left school, he left all of this behind him. he needs none of it. so this is garbage. >> alexandria's parents pulled her from school after her persistent cough wouldn't go away. that was a tough decision because her father, paul, was on the school board at the time. >> she was put on nebulizer, steroids, and another medication. medication. since she's been at another school, she hasn't been on any of it. >> reporter: the school district spent $16,000 this fall to get rid of the mold at hinsdale and the board is deciding whether to close the school temporarily to repair a leaky roof and other repairs. only some of the population is susceptible to mold or dust. but for those who are, the symptoms get increasingly severe. in maryville, connecticut, so many students and teachers were getting sick with respiratory problems that officials decided to tear down mckinley elementary and start from scratch. the school was riddled with mold. >> i started to get sick the second year when they put me in the basement classroom. >> reporter: mckinley's special ed teacher jo ellen lawson taught for 23 years before she became permanently disabled with a serious lung condition called chronic destructive pulmonary disease. >> there are three levels, mild, moderate and severe. because i've lost 50% of my lung capacity, i'm considered a moderate copd person. i've never had a pain-free day since then because i have chronic pain. i have muscle spasms. >> reporter: you can see another source of pain for jo ellen if you ask her if she misses teaching. >> i'm sorry, that's a really loaded question for someone who's been forced to leave the profession when they didn't want to. i'm sorry. >> reporter: if you think connecticut is somehow unique, consider this. a 2010 survey of school nurses nationally found 40% of children and staff sickened by their school environment. and not all school districts have the money to fix the problem. here at southern middle school in reading, pennsylvania, concerns about air quality closed the basement gym. and mold is visible in the computer lab. >> we see some colonies. there is probably two or three different kinds of molds there. >> reporter: and take a look upstairs. >> when it rains heavily, the water actually rains into the room. what we do is we take these buckets, a trash can, and we collect the water. >> it's raining outside and inside. >> reporter: a teacher shot this video. >> what about mold? one of the residual effects to the water would be mold, certainly. >> reporter: drew miles is acting superintendent of reading schools. he's seen the video. he says there's no money to replace that roof. >> the buildings continue to deteriorate abd we only have a small amount of dollars to do minimal things like new roofing. >> there are some who would say this would never happen in my school. >> this teacher agreed to meet me in reading, pennsylvania. how big of a problem would you say air quality, in-door air quality is to a student's health? >> right now, the last estimates said about a third of our schools. about a third of our schools have some kind of problem that causes respiratory problems in children. >> reporter: that's remarkable. >> it's horrific! it is horrific! >> reporter: would you send your kid to this school? >> to this school, would i send my child to this school? for the quality of education that i believe that these teachers can provide and the principal will demand, yes. from a facilities standpoint, if i had another option, i would exercise it. >> reporter: you're the superintendent. people are going to be surprised because i mean, you're the guy who they are going to say, look. make it the school that you want to send your own kid to. but you can't do that? >> i can't with the financial means that i have now. >> i know the solution to this. and it costs money. and this, it's the right thing to do to get these schools the money they need so that kids have healthy places to learn. >> the acting superintendent we saw there was fired this spring appear we first aired the story on cnn. and just last month, the school board said they're laying off more than 10% of the teachers in reading, pennsylvania. no mention of repairs to the school. coming up, it was the worst food poisoning outbreak in more than 30 years and it could have been prevent. we investigate. but i knew i was gonna get that opportunity one day, and that's what happened with university of phoenix. nothing can stop me now. i feel like the sky's the limit with what i can do and what i can accomplish. my name is naphtali bryant and i am a phoenix. visit phoenix.edu to find the program that's right for you. enroll now. dude you don't understand, this is my dad's car. look at the car! my dad's gonna kill me dude... 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[ gasps ] this fiber one 90 calorie brownie has all the moist, chewy, deliciousness you desire. mmmm. thanks. at 90 calories, the brownie of your dreams is now deliciously real. to hear of people sickened and dying from eating cantaloupes infected with a bacteria called listeria. the deadly food outbreak lasted months. then, in december, health officials announced it was over. by then, at least 30 people had died and it was the deadliest food outbreak in nearly 100 years. we decided to investigate how the outbreak happened and how it could have been prevented. >> reporter: you pick them out knowing how sweet it's going to taste and how good it's going to feel. summer cantaloupe. you're eating right. you're eating healthy. and all the better if you were pregnant like michelle wakely. do you remember the cantaloupe? bringing it home thinking i'm pregnant? >> i'm going to eat healthy. >> reporter: right. >> getting fruit cups at restaurants. okay. it's going to be good. it's summertime. it's nice out. fruit is in season. tastes good. >> reporter: cantaloupes in season? >> yeah. >> reporter: that was last season. and since the moment she ate that cantaloupe, her life and her baby's life would never be the same. >> well, we went out late in the afternoon and we were at a store and i had to call dave and i said dave, i'm having terrible contractions. >> reporter: nearly three months before she was due, the baby was literally forcing her way out of her mother's poisoned body. >> oh, my god. i was so scared. it hurt so bad. the baby was trying to force her way out. the baby was pretty far into my bloodstream. >> it was lysteria. a dangerous infection for pregnant women, for the elderly, for small children. the lysteria had come from cantaloupe from one farm. michelle and her husband had no idea about all of that. they just knew both the mother and the child were in trouble. when they told you this baby was going to be born 11 weeks early? >> it was awful. the doctor came in and he told you about the problems that could happen with a baby that was born that premature. it was devastating. it was like she could be blind, she could be deaf, she could have heart problems, cerebral palsy, adhd and the list went on and on. >> reporter: michelle's baby was born in a rush, within hours, and as soon as she arrived, baby kendall was whisked away by a team of emergency doctors. michelle and david couldn't every hold her. barely saw her. when you did see her, what did you see? >> by probably saw her at 6:00, 7:00 the following morning. >> so red. wrinkled. it didn't really look like a real baby. it looked like something you look at in a picture. bones showing through. >> translucent? >> yes. >> reporter: this is kendall today. better. still developmentally behind her peers. >> she's got a button surgically put in her stomach and it's like a little valve. you open it up. >> reporter: being fed through a button in her stomach. still under 24-hour care. you still don't know what kendall is facing? >> correct. >> right. >> reporter: you have a couple years, at least, to wait, watch and worry. >> every milestone is like is she going to do it? is she not going to do it. is she going to be three months late because she was born three months early. still, we won't know everything until she goes to school and starts to learn. >> reporter: kendall and michelle are among the lucky ones. they lived. we now know, according to federal statistics, the lysteria outbreak last september was the most deadly food outbreak in the u.s. in nearly a century. one of the worst three outbreaks ever. nearly three dozen americans died. it should never have happened. last fall, as people began to die and fall sick, investigators from the food and drug administration and centers for disease control fanned out across two dozen states interviewing those who were falling ill or relatives of those who died. they took samples of blood and samples of fruit still sitting in refrigerators. and the trail of evidence, the cantaloupes themselves, led to this remote part of eastern colorado near the town of holly and one single farm, jensen. >> it truly was an a ha moment. >> reporter: dr. jim gordy was the chief investigator on the case. and you were able to go back to all of these victims' families and they were told look it, cantaloupes grown on this particular event four hours southeast of denver is what caused the death of your loved one. >> yes, the evidence is very, very strong in this case. it's some of the strongest evidence i've ever seen. jensen farms has been a fixture of this part of colorado. since the early 1900s when the first jensen arrived from denmark. since then, this dry dirt has been passed from generation to generation. two years ago, it went to eric and ryan jensen. they grew up growing cantaloupes, knew the business by heart. but last year, they decided to make just a few changes. and it would cost them everything. >> they turned the operation upside down with some significant changes they made. it's a very tragic alignment. poor facility design, poor design of equipment and very unique post harvest handling of those melons. if any of those things would have been prevented, this tragedy probably wouldn't have occurred. >> reporter: when we come back, what went so wrong and why didn't anyone notice? >> how could anyone have a food processing plant without any local, state, or federal inspection? see life in the best light. outdoors, or in. transitions® lenses automatically filter just the right amount of light. so you see everything the way it's meant to be seen. maybe even a little better. experience life well lit, ask for transitions adaptive lenses. receiving a transitions lenses certificate of authenticity is your only guarantee that you're getting the world's #1 recommended photochromic lens. ask for it and register your lenses online today. you know that comes with a private island? really? no. it comes with a hat. see, airline credit cards promise flights for 25,000 miles, but... 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[ male announcer ] to get the flights you want, sign up for a venture card at capitalone.com. what's in your wallet? uh, it's ok. i've played a pilot before. today, i choose color. to see it. to feel it. to be in it. to be upon it. and to live a life surrounded by it. today, i put on a fresh coat. ♪ find your color and get $5 off premium paints and stains. download your coupon now. i'm don lemon. tropical storm debby is gathering strength in the gulf of mexico. right now, located 200 miles south of the mississippi river with top winds up to 50 miles per hour. some oil rigs have already been evacuated. storm warnings posted from louisiana to texas. debby triggered at least one tornado in southwest florida and could cause flooding along the gulf coast. former penn state assistant football coach jerry sandusky is under suicide watch in pennsylvania center county jail. he could be sentenced in about 90 days following his conviction on 45 counts of child sex abuse. his wife dotty spotted around noon delivering a package to her husband. sandusky attorneys say they will appeal the verdict. winds and flames are forcing more colorado residents from their homes tonight. fire crews are warning of extreme fire conditions and potential for the high park fire to rapidly grow. the fire has now burned more than 75,000 acres. tengs mounting in tahrir square ahead of presidential election results announced in a few hours. the two candidates a member of the muslim brotherhood and military is bracing for possible violence when the winner is announced. those are your headlines this hour. i'm don lemon, keeping you informed. you're watching cnn. the most trusted name in news. . we now return to "cnn presents" with your host. >> last fall, federal inspectors determined a small farm in eastern colorado was the source for contaminated cantaloupes that caused the deadliest food outbreak in more than 100 years. what happened at that farm and the foot safety system that failed to stop the outbreak of deadly fruit? my investigation continues. >> reporter: the worst ford-born out break in nearly a hundred years began at this farm. two young brothers, the fourth generations of jensen's decided to change the way they packed the melons their family had sold for decades. they will not say on-the-record just why. but we know what they did. cantaloupes were cleaned with a new machine. actually, a secondhand potato washer. according the fda inspectors. and the farmers eliminated a microbial wash used by many farms. the f.d.a. would later find out that jensen farm had created the perfect conditions to grow the dangerous bacteria lysteria. >> it was a very tragic alignment. poor facility design, poor design of equipment, and very unique post-harvest handling practices of those melons. if any one of those things would have been prevented, this tragedy probably wouldn't have even occurred. >> reporter: the melons shipped across the country were time bombs. the sick, the elderly, and unborn babies the most vulnerable. since september, more than 30 dead, one as recently as march. every single death linked genetically to the cantaloupe at jensen farms. >> so we had lots and lots of evidence that basically this was definitively as possible a smoking gun, that this was the source of the contamination. >> reporter: what many people don't realize is most of the produce we eat is never inspected by any government body. the f.d.a. doesn't have the money or the manpower to do it. the food industry did come up with its own volunteer inspection system called food audits, but we found that system is full of holes. just days before the outbreak, jensen farms paid a private company primeus to audit their operation. they sent a 26-year-old with little experience to inspect the jensen farm. james diorio gave the farm a 96%! a superior grade. but on the front page, he noted the jensen's had removed the microbial wash. >> having anti-microbial in any wash water, particularly a primary or the very first step is absolutely essential and, therefore, as soon as one hears that that's not present, that's an instant red flag. >> reporter: trevor edlow is one of the top in the nation on growing and harvesting melons safely. >> what i would expect from an auditor is they would walk into the facility, look at the wash and dry line, know that they weren't using an anti-microbial and just say the audit is done, you have to stop your operation, you can't continue. >> reporter: the auditor, james diorio, would not return cnn's calls. the subcontractor, biofood safety and primus labs declined cnn's requests. to some food safety experts, the third-party that the jensens relied on is a joke. >> the so-called food safety audits are not worth anything. they are not food safety audits. they have nothing to do with food safety. >> reporter: dr. monsore samapoor runs one of the nation's largest food-safety testing and consulting labs for both industry and the government. he says consumers should have no faith in the current system of farm audits because of a conflict of interest. farms pay for their own inspections. >> if this industry is sincere and they want to have their product be of any use to anyone, they should be printing their audit reports on toilet paper. the problem is that we have never had recall, outbreak or a situation where, you know, several people died, where the company in question was not audited and did not have scores of 96%, 97%, 95%, 98%. >> reporter: while critics say some auditors do a good job, it's a voluntary, patch work system with no national standards or regulations. for now, the audit system, however flawed, is what most farms rely on. why? because in four generations of farming, the fda's jim gorney and his team were the first food safety officials ever to set foot on jensen farms. prior to your arrival, the fda had never been to that farm? >> they had not. >> where were the guys before? why should anyone be allowed to have a processing plant without requiring the amount of expertise, without having the food safety systems in place and produce food and send it into the commerce? so they have had failures at multiple levels. >> reporter: back in indiana, michelle doesn't care much about the fda, the private inspector, the audits. she and her family got sick eating cantaloupe from farmers who should have known better. >> monday, i am going to go to that farm and i am going to speak to those farmers. what would you like me to ask them? >> why? because they said that their facilities weren't clean. they said everything about the process was not done correctly in accordance could the guidelines issued by the government. there were so many things they weren't doing correctly. why? to save a dollar? i mean, people have died now. >> reporter: we met with ryan and eric jensen, the two brothers who now run jensen farms, for about an hour in their office behind me. it was all off the record. not to be quoted. jensen farms has now filed for bankruptcy. its assets likely to be sold to pay medical claims of those sickened or settlements to families of those who died. most troubling of all, there is nothing in place, no protective systems, that could prevent this from happening again. just last year, the president obama signed the food safety modernization act into law. but even with the new law, farms or food facilities still may not be inspected any more than once every seven to ten years. many food safety experts are not convinced the problems will be solved any time soon. up next, cutting-edge medicine. the story of a patient with a battery-powered brain. ll busines credit card! pizza!!!!! 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[ male announcer ] it's a network of possibilities -- helping you do what you do... even better. ♪ subject that scares many. mental illness. because there's so much we don't understand. in any given year, 5% of americans have serious mental health problems. many cases, mood disorders. ptsd, addiction. according to a government study, they go untreated. but, tonight, dr. sanjay gupta is going to show you a new kind of surgery that literally changes the way our brains work. >> reporter: for as long as edie geiten can remember, she could not get the sad thoughts out of her head. >> my mother used to say to me, smile, edie, why don't you smile? and i would give something like that, maybe. or just think what is there to smile about? >> reporter: at 19, her blank face reflected what would later be diagnosed as severe depression. >> that expression is the best i could do. >> reporter: what's it like to look at it now? >> i feel sorry for her. you know? i just -- i feel bad for her that she couldn't smile, that she couldn't talk to people about, you know, what is going on with her that would lead her to cut her wrists several months later. >> reporter: it was her sophomore year. academic and social pressures were the trigger. and one night -- >> for reasons that are inexplicable to me, even now, got up and started playing with the razor. >> reporter: and you cut your wrists? >> uh-huh. >> reporter: did you cut both your wrists? >> i can't. >> reporter: she went into counseling, but it didn't help. over the next 40 years, she tried everything else, including psychiatric drugs and electroconvulsive shock therapy. >> and then there was a few years that i think i felt pretty good. but then i went back down and i went back down very deep. >> reporter: there were two more suicide attempts before she conquered the demon. what finally worked? well, if you could look inside edie geiten's head today, this is what you'd see. >> i don't think about it, but i have electrodes in my brain! >> reporter: two electrodes. the thickness of angel hair pasta powered by a battery pack under her collarbone. >> and the wire goes up here. and then into my -- yeah, into my brain. >> reporter: specifically to a part of the brain known as area 25. it's an experimental treatment. so what are we looking at here? pioneered by neurologist dr. helen neighbor. since the mid 1990s, maber has been using high-tech images to study the brain circuits that control our moods. she figured out that area 25 is a junction box in the center of it all. >> okay. here we go, charlie. maber's research also showed that in depressed patients, area 25 is relatively overactive. >> here, again, you can see area 25, except now it's red as opposed to blue. because this is an increase. >> reporter: she theorized that in patients like edie geiten, who did not respond to conventional treatments, area 25 was somehow stuck in overdrive. >> it just was a matter of following the experiment a.al trail. okay? >> reporter: the trail led to the operating room. and a procedure known as deep brain stimulation, d.b.s. here at em emery, where i am on staff, my colleagues have been using deep brain stimulation for more than 15 years to treat movement disorders, such as parkinson's disease. but dr. maber wanted to use d.b.s. to target area 25 for patients with severe depression. so beginning in 2003, working with a brain surgeon in toronto, she began testing it on six patients. it had never been done before. >> we had patients who were profoundly without any options and suffering. and we had a hypothesis. >> reporter: what did you worry about most in terms of potential side effects from actually stimulating 25? >> because of its vital position, its junction box location, for all we knew, we were going to activate it and make people feel worse. >> reporter: instead, maber saw two-thirds of the patients get significantly better. she has since reported similar results for 31 others. >> and we not only get them better, but with continued estimation stimulation with this device, they stay well. >> people who lived in a block of emotional ice for years. >> it's not that you won't be happy or that you aren't happy. it's that you can't be happy. >> reporter: not even when her grand niece, susan, was born. >> and somebody handed her to me and i held her, but i didn't even put her face to mine. i just held her. but i was going through the motions and i felt really nothing. >> reporter: nothing? >> nothing. nothing. >> reporter: on the day of surgery, edie's head was mounted in a rigid frame. >> the sound of the drill, the feeling of it and my teeth are going like this. i think it hit home to me that you're having brain surgery. somebody is going into your brain. chinese takeout taco truck free range chicken pancake stack baked alaska 5% cashback. signup for 5% cashback at restaurants through june. it pays to discover. but they can be really well thexpensive.ted a puppy, so to save money i just found them a possum. dad, i think he's dead. probably just playin' possum. sfx: possum hisses there he is. there's an easier way to save. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. 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[ gasps ] this fiber one 90 calorie brownie has all the moist, chewy, deliciousness you desire. mmmm. thanks. at 90 calories, the brownie of your dreams is now deliciously real. imagine living in a hole so dark, you cannot see. so deep, you cannot escape. that's severe depression. now doctors are experimenting with a cutting-edge treatment. battery-powered brains. how does it work? can it cure depression? dr. sanjay gupta continues his investigation. >> reporter: in an operating room at emory university in atlanta. >> right now we will anchor these in place. >> reporter: these doctors are trying to use deep-brain stimulation to turn off severe depression. where the blood vessels are and obviously choosing the target. is that right? >> yes. >> reporter: the target is area 25. a junction box for brain circuits that control our moods. >> our patients are miserable. it's beyond sadness. they spend most of their day just sitting there often thinking, you know, why can't i just die. >> reporter: at first, patients are lightly sedated. as dr. robert gross drills two holes. with an instrument to guide him, he then inserts the electrodes. to make sure the electrodes are in the right spot, we can actually listen for neurons firing in the brain. the gray matter sounds like this. the white matter is silent. and that's where they want the electrodes. the white matter. just below area 25. >> we just confirmed that all the electrodes are basically in the right place. >> reporter: it was a procedure, just like this, done on edie geiten. what were the risks? what did they tell you? >> brain damage, infection, death. >> reporter: did you have second thoughts about doing this? >> no. >> it was that bad? >> it was that bad. >> reporter: deep brain stimulation would change her life. >> is the contact up? >> contact is up. >> reporter: you could see it happen when she was wide awake in the operating room with the doctors. >> are you okay, edie? >> yeah. >> okay. >> reporter: as a benchmark, they ask edie to rate her feelings on a scale of 1-10 starting with dread. >> it feels like the dread is getting worse. >> she says the dread is getting worse. rate it. >> ten. >> reporter: two minutes later, they turned on one of the four contacts. >> how does that feel right now? is it still hot? what's the dread right now? >> maybe a three. >> reporter: a drop from 8 to 3. but doctors would soon get an even better result. remember, before the surgery, edie could not connect emotionally with her grand niece, susan. then, they turned on contact number 2. >> just let me know if anything changes. just give a shout. >> i almost smiled. >> you almost smiled? >> yeah. >> describe that for us, would you, please? >> i haven't smiled, i haven't smiled, i feel like, in a long time. >> it brings tears to your eyes to see somebody that is in such pain and then that goes away. >> when you say you almost smiled, does something strike you as funny? or is it sort of spontaneous? >> it was -- well, actually i was thinking of playing with susan. i started thinking about susan, little susan. i thought i was holding -- you know, i was holding her with her face to me. right there in that little brain surgery. i felt feelings that i thought were gone. >> reporter: what was that like? just to think that a machine with electricity can transform your emotions like that? >> it felt fantastic. i didn't care what was doing it. it just felt great. >> actually, spoon is in there. >> reporter: it's been five years. edie is one of dr. maber's most dramatic success stories. >> pretty good, huh? i don't feel good all of the time, but this gives me the capacity that if i can, if there is joy in my life, i have the capacity to feel it. >> reporter: but what exactly is going on? what is dbs doing to the brain circuits. what to we know and don't we know about why this works? >> to be honest, we don't know why it works. >> reporter: if area 25 is so important, why isn't everyone getting it done? >> maybe we are doing something wrong. maybe they're not the right patient. that means we've got to understand the biology better. >> reporter: in addition to depression, started looking for obsessive-compulsive disorder, epilepsy, tur tourette's syndrome and alzheimer's. in the meantime, edie geiten is thankful for her new life. >> oh! >> reporter: with the battery pack delivering 1/1000th of the power that a flashlight uses. do you feel electricity or anything? >> i don't feel anything in my head at all. did you go off medication when you were pregnant? >> reporter: she's active with the mental health advocacy and support group. and she recently traveld to italy with old friends from college. >> and that smile was real. i was okay. >> reporter: it's only been an issue once. >> at the airport, i just go and i say -- and they say pacemaker. and i say yes. at one time, i said it's brain at one time, i said it's brain electroroads and i never will do that again. the woman patted me down like she was af